Improving Global Climate Models by Observing Tropical Cirrus Clouds Grant uri icon

abstract

  • The proposed work aims to reduce the uncertainty in computer simulations of future climate. This will be done by improving our poor understanding of the origin and properties of high cirrus clouds in the Tropics, which play a major role in regulating the Earths climate. This project will build on recent NASA supported work involving radar and satellite observations of the formation and growth of cirrus clouds in South Florida. Thus, the research accomplished under this proposal will increase the chance of further NASA support for the SJSU Department of Meteorology in the current difficult federal funding situation.

    The goal is to produce several case studies of cirrus cloud generation from deep thunderstorms, in order to develop a firm basis for representing the effects of cirrus clouds in models of future climate change. Funds are requested for one month of faculty salary, and approximately 170 hours of student time. We plan to use existing computer facilities in the Department of Meteorology, as well as computer hardware purchased with other funds, to complete this project. The project will significantly add to the computer-based instructional resources used in coursework within our Department. Student participation is a key component of the project. It is anticipated that a masters level student will use this work as a basis for her or his thesis and that the results will be published in the American Meteorological Society journal Monthly Weather Review.

date/time interval

  • February 2006